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Wables
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This is how I do it. 3” of pool noodle, 20’ of string, and 2” of decoy anchor. Weight is 2.2 oz., but you could get by with a smaller sinker. I also cut a groove for the string storage by spinning it over a 3/4” router bit.
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mgraber
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I see no problem with using them, but I could see that if a ranger saw them, and you weren't around, they would pick them up as they would have no idea if they had been abandoned. I can guarantee you that if you are not present in Kansas, they will be picked up, at least the lakes I fish. I use a gps, a piece of wood, and a rock when in canoe country.
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Moonman
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eOar: " 
Stealth!"
Great idea eoar! Looks like that interlocking foam for workshop floors or kids play rooms etc. I definitely have some laying around. Will make a couple today!
Moonman.
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joetrain
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I have used them in Quetico. I always bring 2 bottles of Gatorade. After I drink them one becomes my water bottle and the other a marker buoy.
~JOE~
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nooneuno
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I use a stick with some mono and a river sinker, works good, stealthy, and don’t have to portage it.....
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Savage Voyageur
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LittoralZone: "eOar: "
Stealth!"
What's the yellow material? I'd like to make a few of these.
Thanks."
They look like closed cell foam to me. You can buy it at a fabric store. Another source is any closed cell sleeping foam mat. Possibly maybe even a yoga mat would work for this. Just remember that you want closed cell.
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chrisinomaha
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I use one to locate our minnow bucket we sink in deeper water out from the campsite a bit. I tie a rope onto the bucket and then the marker as well just to make sure it doesn't come lose. Is that illegal as well? Does common sense apply at all? I suppose one could say I am marking fish since the marker is tied to the bucket with minnows in it. :)
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outdooraddict
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I brought one with one year. We weren't seeing any traffic, i dropped it at the area that I seemed to stop catching walleyes while drifting down a channel.
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walllee
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Hard to believe that the Rangers make a issue out of this.
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mutz
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The question was “is a marker bouy legal”. Whether you use a store bought marker, a bobber with a sinker or a stick with string and a rock, a marker is a marker therefore any are either legal or not legal. It goes the same with LNT you can’t say a store bought marker bouy is LNT but a stick with a string and rock isn’t, LNT is LNT.
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barehook
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I always have one at hand and ready to toss out when we are fishing deeper structural elements, looking for the sweet 'spot on the spot'. We throw one the moment we see a structural anomaly on the depth finder (hump or break or different looking bottom). Same thing if one of us hooks a fish. Using the marker as a reference point, we'll then explore the area more thoroughly, If it turns out to be a productive area, it gets a GPS waypoint for future reference. Regardless, we never leave an area without first picking up the marker (LNT!!). Using them this freely does take some time and hassle to always be retrieving the marker and winding it up, but I feel has been worth it. Especially when fishing mid-lake reefs, finding a productive looking spot again without marking it immediately can be almost impossible.
One other application we sometimes use is to use two markers to chart the start and end of a drift. It helps us cover a reef more systematically.
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timatkn
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Never used them, but mostly becuase outside the BWCAW they seem to be a magnet to other people with less fishing skill.
I don't see how they would be illegal as long as you remove them when you are done. I have friends that will leave them out to mark a reef over a few days, but only if others aren't around---I suppose that might be a rules violation, but then again if no one is around not really seeign how it would be a big deal.
T
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BearRaid
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quote old_salt: "I mark my spots with GPS built-in to my fishfinder. I will deploy a marker if the lake is too crowded for my taste. It usually marks the edge of a weedy bay loaded with snot rockets. This can provide diversionary entertainment."
Good one old salt. I wondered why we never caught anything but small Pike by markers we see!
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LittoralZone
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eOar: "
Stealth!"
What's the yellow material? I'd like to make a few of these.
Thanks.
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walllee
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quote 2old4U: "I spent the better part of a morning mapping a large rock pile right in front of my campsite, marking the "spot on the spot" with a couple marker buoys...only to have a USFS ranger paddle over to them, wind them up, and come give me a chewing out about LNT, blah blah blah. I tried to explain to her (I think it was a her) that the only people that even bother to come to that particular lake are there for the fishing and wouldn't be offended by the sight of two small marker buoys anyways, but she got all Barney Fife on me so I shut up just to get rid of her. I've since gone from using orange buoys to just using clear plastic pop bottles that can't be spotted unless you are quite close to them. "
I had the same thing happen to me in Quetico . The Rangers took them after I left them out as we went in to have lunch. The bad thing is they confiscated them. They didn't even know what they were. I think they thought they were some sort of fish catching device.
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walllee
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I do use them a lot. It is a vital fishing tool for me . I think the rule is you must take them with you when you leave a fishing spot, but I must admit I have left them on the water for entire trips if I have the lake to myself, or are on a huge lake where the chances of people seeing them is nill to none. I have switched to using black markers most of the time just to keep a low profile. They can be tough to see, but I always mark my good fishing area with a gps also.
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Savage Voyageur
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Yes I have used marker bouys for marking spots. I now use a GPS to mark spots. Every fish I hit the button, then I can see a pattern on the screen where the fish are.
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old_salt
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I mark my spots with GPS built-in to my fishfinder. I will deploy a marker if the lake is too crowded for my taste. It usually marks the edge of a weedy bay loaded with snot rockets. This can provide diversionary entertainment.
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FOG51
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I always carry a marker bouy when I head out in the canoe to fish, not to mark any fishing spots but to mark a the spot if my fishing partner should drop his rod overboard, I've retrieved several rigs other people have dropped. Seems silly someone would drop a rig overboard but lets face it happens. FRED
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sns
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I used a spare life vest to mark a mini-keg of beer sunk below the thermocline once...
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Basspro69
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quote 2old4U: "only to have a USFS ranger paddle over to them, wind them up, and come give me a chewing out about LNT, blah blah blah. I tried to explain to her (I think it was a her) "
LMAO LOLOLOLOLOLOL
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buz
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Yep, use em, only way to mark open water reefs, then back off, fish around it. Very hard to figure out where you are in open water without them. I don't care if anyone else uses them, to me, they are simply a fishing tool, like a depth finder. If you are done fishing, you are supposed to pick them up.
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eOar
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Stealth!
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starman
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In the b-dub distances are smaller we use a regular bobber as a marker, easy to carry and plenty easy to spot from a canoe
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timatkn
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quote walllee: "quote 2old4U: "I spent the better part of a morning mapping a large rock pile right in front of my campsite, marking the "spot on the spot" with a couple marker buoys...only to have a USFS ranger paddle over to them, wind them up, and come give me a chewing out about LNT, blah blah blah. I tried to explain to her (I think it was a her) that the only people that even bother to come to that particular lake are there for the fishing and wouldn't be offended by the sight of two small marker buoys anyways, but she got all Barney Fife on me so I shut up just to get rid of her. I've since gone from using orange buoys to just using clear plastic pop bottles that can't be spotted unless you are quite close to them. "
I had the same thing happen to me in Quetico . The Rangers took them after I left them out as we went in to have lunch. The bad thing is they confiscated them. They didn't even know what they were. I think they thought they were some sort of fish catching device. "
Weird...I've seen multiple marker buoys left out for a week at a time by First Nations folks and not a word from the Rangers. Of course they still use minnows, leeches, crawlers on all the lakes legally so maybe different rules or you had overzealous Rangers.
T
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Doughboy12
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quote Pinetree: "Markers for fishing spots left overnight in all of Minnesota waters are illegal."
...and the best way to add to your collection. I always pick them up if no one is around, anytime of day.
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2old4U
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I spent the better part of a morning mapping a large rock pile right in front of my campsite, marking the "spot on the spot" with a couple marker buoys...only to have a USFS ranger paddle over to them, wind them up, and come give me a chewing out about LNT, blah blah blah. I tried to explain to her (I think it was a her) that the only people that even bother to come to that particular lake are there for the fishing and wouldn't be offended by the sight of two small marker buoys anyways, but she got all Barney Fife on me so I shut up just to get rid of her. I've since gone from using orange buoys to just using clear plastic pop bottles that can't be spotted unless you are quite close to them.
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mutz
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2old4U: "I spent the better part of a morning mapping a large rock pile right in front of my campsite, marking the "spot on the spot" with a couple marker buoys...only to have a USFS ranger paddle over to them, wind them up, and come give me a chewing out about LNT, blah blah blah. I tried to explain to her (I think it was a her) that the only people that even bother to come to that particular lake are there for the fishing and wouldn't be offended by the sight of two small marker buoys anyways, but she got all Barney Fife on me so I shut up just to get rid of her. I've since gone from using orange buoys to just using clear plastic pop bottles that can't be spotted unless you are quite close to them. "
For the life of me I cannot see where having a marker bouy out when you are fishing could possibly be interpreted as to being a violation of LNT. If LNT is interpreted like this then hanging a water filter in a tree and removing it when you leave would also have to be interpreted as LNT.
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Pinetree
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Markers for fishing spots left overnight in all of Minnesota waters are illegal.
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Rich Mahogony
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Is it legal in Quetico or the BWCA? I think I've read about people using them in the Boundary Waters Journal. I don't see why it would be illegal, but it just doesn't seem to be in line with a wilderness fishing trip. Do you use buoys? Are you bothered when you see other people using them?
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